The fine folks at Viz are releasing the popular anime series Naruto starting, naturally, with the first volume.  Based on the wildly popular manga by Masashi Kishimoto, this action adventure series has a lot of laughs and some endearing characters.  Unfortunately, this disc only has the edited version of the show that was telecast on American cable, not the original version, something that will make a lot of fans stay away from this version.

Naruto is a 12 year old boy living in a village populated by ninja.  He isn't the best student around, he's failed the test to become a ninja twice as the series opens and it's not looking good for the third time either.  What he lacks in discipline he more than makes up for in moxie: He loudly proclaims to anyone who will listen that he's going to be the best ninja ever! The fact that everyone in the village shuns him and treats him badly just makes him even more determined.

There's more to the story than Naruto knows though. Twelve yeas ago, a giant nine-tailed fox attacked the land.  The village all turned out to face the monster, and many ninja were killed, but the creature couldn't be stopped. The only way that the fox could be stopped was for the village elder to sacrifice his life and trap the fox inside a human body:  a baby boy named Naruto.

Shunned by the villagers and without a family, Naruto becomes the class clown.  He figures that it's better for people to be angry with him than ignoring him.  That all changes one evening though when the boy is tricked into stealing a scroll of forbidden ninja techniques.  Naruto reads one, and miraculously masters the complex maneuver which allows him to make "shadow clones" of himself, countless copies that are solid, and not just illusions.

Armed with this technique Naruto manages to become a ninja, but that's only the beginning of his training.  Next the young warrior has to go through advanced training as part of a cell.  He's teamed up with Sakura, a cute girl he has a crush on, and Sasuke, the highest scoring student in their class.  Together they have to go through some rigorous training with Kakashi, a masked master who seems like a goof.  Is he just putting on an act?

This show is a good deal of fun, though it is much lighter in tone than the manga.  They really play up the humor a good deal, but there is still a fair amount of action.  This volume is just getting the story rolling though, introducing the main characters and setting up the world.  With the last episode on this disc the main story of Naruto's training really started to shift into high gear.  If the rest of the series is as exciting, this will be a good show.

While the story is very engaging, the same can't be said of the actual animation.  It's acceptable, but not great.  There isn't a lot of detail in the character designs.  Hair is just a field of color without and texture, and many people look two dimensional.  The motion is alright, with the action flowing fairly smoothly.

This disc contains the first four episodes of the series, but they are the edited versions that are shown on TV.  I was hoping that Viz would release this show in its original form, but no luck.

Another rather irritating thing is that, unfortunately, there are a pair of unskipable trailers for video games before the menu pops up.  They are only a few seconds long, but it was still annoying.

Audio:

This disc only had the English dub in stereo.  There was no Japanese language track or English subtitles, which is too bad.  The dub track was not outstanding.  Some of the children's voices were a little too high pitched and squeaky, and other actors put a little too much emotion in their performances and hamming it up too much.  Being a recent dub, the sound quality was very good without any defects.

Video:

The full frame image was very good overall.  The colors were bright and strong, and the lines were tight.  Happily, digital defects were not prevalent and even aliasing was very minor. A solid looking DVD.

Extras:

The only bonus items on this disc is a preview for the Naruto manga books, where viewers can read the first 16 pages of the story, and a series of trailers for other anime that originally appeared in Shonen Jump.

Included inside the case are an insert with chapter stops, a couple of ads with some pretty cool Naruto merchandise, and a Naruto poster.

Final Thoughts:

This is a good show, but the disc leaves something to be desired.  This is only the edited version of the show, made for American TV, and the disc doesn't have the original soundtrack.  While the cuts in this volume don't really effect the main story, the fact that they are there in the first place will make many fans take a pass on this.  If you're looking for a fun and exciting show to play for children, this gets a strong recommendation.  My ten year old was glued to the set through the entire show and can't wait for the next volume.